Waikiki Sunset

This sunset was shot from a condo window at Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, Hawaii. Sure wish I was looking out that window right now.

Used a Nikon F4 film body with Fuji transparency film and scanned with a Nikon Coolscan 9000.

It’s Red!

This is another stock photograph I have available. Used a Nikon D2x with an “ancient” 55mm f/3.5 micro lens (from the 60’s) for the shot. That lens may be old but it gives up nothing in sharpness and clarity to anything produced today. For lighting I used an Arri softlight on the anthurium and a fresnel on the green seamless paper background to give it gradation and more depth. 

The anthurium is so dramatic looking I shot it loose in the frame to give it some breathing room and also if an art director wanted to use it large and have room for a headline or body copy.

Anthuriums are amazing looking flowers. They have an almost plastic and other worldly look about them. And the color just knocks you out with its richness.

Potato Rock

This is a photograph of a rock formation and Joshua Tree at Joshua Tree National Park in the southern California desert. Thought it kind of humerous that the big foreground rock looks like a giant baked potato. 

Used a Nikon D100 and 35-70mm lens for this shot.

 
Photo © Craig Brewer

On the back lot.

This is another picture of model/actress Cory Oliver (see yesterdays blog for more detail) that we shot on the back lot of Universal Studios. If my memory serves me correctly this is the porch of the house Gregory Peck lived in in the movie “To Kill A Mockingbird.” 

Used a Nikon F4 film body and 80-200mm lens for this shot.

 
Photo © Craig Brewer

A Lovely Lady

This is a shot of a friend who I worked with as part of the crew on a daily talk show shot live at Universal Studios some years ago. I was the still photographer and she was one of the makeup artists. As you can see Cory Oliver is quite beautiful and in addition to what she did for this show she did film and TV acting and modeling. 

She was always needing new shots for her portfolio so we worked together numerous times shooting for her book. We did this one on the back lot at Universal one afternoon. There are a lot of buildings that are just facades with no interiors that make great backgrounds to shoot people in.

Used a Nikon F4 film camera and a 80-200mm lens for this shot on Kodak black and white film. Since the background had a rustic look I sepia toned it in Photoshop to give it a warm look.

Have lost track of Cory for a few years, so if you stumble across this Cory get in touch with me as I’d like to know what you are up to these days.

 
Photo © Craig Brewer

Time Zones

This is another picture shot for stock. Wanted to get a little wild with the colors so used some fine art paper that I bought at an art store for the background. The clock is actually sitting on my tweed covered guitar case that houses my Fender Stratocaster.

Used two Arri fresnel lights, one for the three time zone clock and the other for the background. Cut out some holes in black illustration board for the light to pass through and give it a dappled look. The camera was a Cambo 4×5 view camera with a 6×9cm roll film back filled with Fuji tungsten transparency film that I scanned with a Nikon Coolscan 9000 scanner.

Photo © Craig Brewer

It’s Summer Time!

Nothing says summer better than an ice cold slice of juicy watermelon.

Photographed this for stock with a Nikon D2x and 17-55mm lens. I liked the reflection of window light on the counter top and placed the watermelon there and shot available light.

Photo © Craig Brewer

Political Photography

This is digging way back in the vaults to 1988. I was living in Virginia Beach, VA at the time and had a studio mainly doing a lot of advertising product and illustration shots and some people photography too. Got a call one day from a PR company inquiring about shooting some “Presidential” looking portraits of Pat Robertson for his White House attempt.

So spent two days with an art director, makeup person, and the PR person who was working for his campaign taking pictures in all kinds of settings around his house. This was in his library and sort of a semi formal friendly type of shot. Was surprised at how knowledgeable he was about the photography process and he reviewed the final Polaroid’s before we committed to shooting film. He even offered a few good suggestions.

Have to admit though that on the second day the PR person who was a butt kisser to Pat and a constant irritant with stupid suggestions tried my patience like never before. Things were getting very tense until I finally blew my top when we were reviewing the Polaroid’s for this shot and told her off in anger in front of everybody. Had never done that before during a shoot and never done it since, but I was ready to pack my gear and walk if she didn’t shut up.

Everybody was shocked and no one said a word waiting to see what Pat was going to do. Well much to my surprise he just gave us a pep talk and said let’s get back to work which we did. But the tension was broken, the PR girl shut up and we finished a couple more shots that day without incident.

Used a Bronica ETRS, Speedotron lights, and Kodak black and white film to make the shot.

Photo © Craig Brewer

 

Some People Just Don’t Have The Stomach For This

This is another of a series of ads I did for a gym that is posted just before this one. Of course the headline is pretty explanatory as being an ad to flatten the stomach. 

It was a pretty simple photograph and didn’t take long at all to shoot. Had two speedotron strobes in softboxes on each side and slightly behind as rim lights and fill cards in front. The background was a very large painted canvas, the camera was a Bronica ETRS, and shot on Kodak black and white film which I processed and printed myself.

Photo © Craig Brewer

Just Say No To Pot

This one one of a series of ads I did for a gym. The writer had himself in mind when he wrote the copy and sure enough went on a diet and started working out right after this ad was shot. Instead of hiring a model he is the person in the shot.

It was a pretty simple photograph and didn’t take long at all to shoot. Had two speedotron strobes in softboxes on each side and slightly behind as rim lights and fill cards in front. The background was a very large painted canvas, the camera was a Bronica ETRS, and shot on Kodak black and white film which I processed and printed myself.

Photo © Craig Brewer